you saw her hit with a ball machine? has she played any tournaments yet?

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I saw her play a match.

She is in a tournament in my town. I was there to see a friend's daughter play and saw this girl playing and started asking who this little girl was. When they told me, I knew the name sounded familiar and googled her when I got home.

She is in a tournament in my town. I was there to see a friend's daughter play and saw this girl playing and started asking who this little girl was. When they told me, I knew the name sounded familiar and googled her when I got home.

It was the ATA national tournament. I believe she is playing the 14's. Her competition today was not that high. However, her form looked really good and she was very composed for someone who never plays tournaments.

I believe she will meet a pretty good 4 or 5 star player in the semis if she makes it that far. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It was the ATA national tournament. I believe she is playing the 14's. Her competition today was not that high. However, her form looked really good and she was very composed for someone who never plays tournaments.

I believe she will meet a pretty good 4 or 5 star player in the semis if she makes it that far. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It was the ATA national tournament. I believe she is playing the 14's. Her competition today was not that high. However, her form looked really good and she was very composed for someone who never plays tournaments.

I believe she will meet a pretty good 4 or 5 star player in the semis if she makes it that far. It will be interesting to see what happens.

We can post many videos of young players and say this one does this good and this one does that good. Shishkina is no doubt a great player but Emira looks to be more of a natural athlete etc etc etc . Also - I saw the Shishkina girl while visiting IMG twice and although she is a good player - too much defense for my liking. Also really no pace on the ball. Tornado Black hits with much more pace than Shishkina. But again - they are young and more likely that none of them make it to the next level. This Shishkina girl may also have head problems later. According to many of the coaches I spoke to there, she has a reputation for cheating and is very full of herself. The mother is a nut bag - I watched her many times screaming at her while she was on the court. Who knows right?

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Was at Zonals this week and it's coaching. Every kid from one section within the first 4-5 points accused his/her opponent of "cheating". Not just questioning calls but "cheating". Then they would forget points causing arguments and one "forgot" the game count. It was pathetic.

One of the kids who was getting hooked badly just told his son to hit it in. Meaning , hit with big margins on the lines and let the kid make the mistake and breakdown. As soon as his opponent cussed, flung his racquet or complained about the pain in his ( insert body part) you'd know it was over. Lots of bad feelings and a coach from one of the sections was screaming at a parent about being a loser, another dad was encouraging his kid to get "this kids autograph after you kick his butt".

Just weird stuff. One of the girls on the team screamed at her dad and told him to quit saying she was playing like a "f***ing p***y".

Brad Gilbert must be really proud that his Winning Ugly is the bible on some junior sections and coaches.

Was at Zonals this week and it's coaching. Every kid from one section within the first 4-5 points accused his/her opponent of "cheating". Not just questioning calls but "cheating". Then they would forget points causing arguments and one "forgot" the game count. It was pathetic.

One of the kids who was getting hooked badly just told his son to hit it in. Meaning , hit with big margins on the lines and let the kid make the mistake and breakdown. As soon as his opponent cussed, flung his racquet or complained about the pain in his ( insert body part) you'd know it was over. Lots of bad feelings and a coach from one of the sections was screaming at a parent about being a loser, another dad was encouraging his kid to get "this kids autograph after you kick his butt".

Just weird stuff. One of the girls on the team screamed at her dad and told him to quit saying she was playing like a "f***ing p***y".

Brad Gilbert must be really proud that his Winning Ugly is the bible on some junior sections and coaches.

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I was at Boys zonals and it was pretty calm...
Except for one match ( not bad out of 30 boy single matches!!!!!!)
There was one boy playing one of our boys who cheated on every major point.
So, all the kids (boys and girls) were infuriated and cheered for our player,
and then the parent of the other boy complained to the ref that the kids were too loud ( it is a team event?)..
Then, the ref finally came over and watched the match.

The only other thing I noticed was that the ref at the first players meeting said the deity rule would be enforced.
And I did hear the word Jesus being screamed from many courts, and I am sorry, but that is is offensive,
and there were no point suspensions...
so just more empty words from the refs...

BTW, I was at a different zonal from you.....

Sorry, it was a bad experience, but, I would recommend complaining to your sectional office and then cc the national office on the same email. This has worked well in our section and the bad kids are now not getting away with some of the CRAZY, cheating behavior.

Was at Zonals this week and it's coaching. Every kid from one section within the first 4-5 points accused his/her opponent of "cheating". Not just questioning calls but "cheating". Then they would forget points causing arguments and one "forgot" the game count. It was pathetic.

One of the kids who was getting hooked badly just told his son to hit it in. Meaning , hit with big margins on the lines and let the kid make the mistake and breakdown. As soon as his opponent cussed, flung his racquet or complained about the pain in his ( insert body part) you'd know it was over. Lots of bad feelings and a coach from one of the sections was screaming at a parent about being a loser, another dad was encouraging his kid to get "this kids autograph after you kick his butt".

Just weird stuff. One of the girls on the team screamed at her dad and told him to quit saying she was playing like a "f***ing p***y".

Brad Gilbert must be really proud that his Winning Ugly is the bible on some junior sections and coaches.

16 year old... just amazing mouths on some of the kids. I heard more F-bombs and "Jeezus C...." , just mouthy stuff than I'd heard in a long time. I have to say that the racquet abuse was non-existent DURING the matches when an official gave a player a warning, then a point penalty on set point. BOTH teams just sat there with their mouths open asking, "did he just do that? whoa..."

If the officials wanted to they were good. Came when they were asked and basically didn't put up with anything. In fact one match the official stated in no uncertain terms that unless it was the score that neither player was to comment in any manner to the other player after a rather contentious start. This was after 4 games in the first set.

Looking back it's just pathetic. The 12-16 year olds are not getting the mental toughness by relying on the gamesmanship b.s. It's becoming like wrestling. Especially the line calls and score challenges in order to somehow get an "edge" when you want to hook someone or distract them in order to break their concentration. Oh well, it takes all kinds and I'm sure that it's never going to change.

Was at Zonals this week and it's coaching. Every kid from one section within the first 4-5 points accused his/her opponent of "cheating". Not just questioning calls but "cheating". Then they would forget points causing arguments and one "forgot" the game count. It was pathetic.

One of the kids who was getting hooked badly just told his son to hit it in. Meaning , hit with big margins on the lines and let the kid make the mistake and breakdown. As soon as his opponent cussed, flung his racquet or complained about the pain in his ( insert body part) you'd know it was over. Lots of bad feelings and a coach from one of the sections was screaming at a parent about being a loser, another dad was encouraging his kid to get "this kids autograph after you kick his butt".

Just weird stuff. One of the girls on the team screamed at her dad and told him to quit saying she was playing like a "f***ing p***y".

Brad Gilbert must be really proud that his Winning Ugly is the bible on some junior sections and coaches.

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Which location was this?

It was pretty calm in Omaha (except for rain delays). A few dust ups, but not anything more than a typical monthly sectional ranking tournament.

It was a great event. After matches on Saturday, my kid was playing cards with two kids he had beaten & one kid who beat him (& a couple of other kids).

^^^Yea, this kid looked interesting when this thread on her started. There are no TRN ratings on this girl which suggest she does not play tournaments. Not bad for a girl who has a one handed backhand but the videos suggest that the BH is more defensive than anything. Daddy has an interesting background ;-).
All that said, maybe she was just one of many internet/youtube hypes who have dropped off?

^^^Yea, this kid looked interesting when this thread on her started. There are no TRN ratings on this girl which suggest she does not play tournaments. Not bad for a girl who has a one handed backhand but the videos suggest that the BH is more defensive than anything. Daddy has an interesting background ;-).
All that said, maybe she was just one of many internet/youtube hypes who have dropped off?

They were working their unique route with no USTAs. Dad used to hire lots of high level practice partners and they set up practice matches. I wonder if that is still the way they are training. Be amazing to see a player like that pop out and rise up the pro rankings.

They were working their unique route with no USTAs. Dad used to hire lots of high level practice partners and they set up practice matches. I wonder if that is still the way they are training. Be amazing to see a player like that pop out and rise up the pro rankings.

I wish we could see some videos of her matches. The girl looks very good on the forehand side, the backhand is a little lazy and too much slicing. It would be ok 20 years ago now with all this power you have got to have power back hand and forehand otherwise good players will hurt you right away. I wonder what is the most recent video there is of her, just so the progress can be tracked.

I read an article by Stan Smith? (I think it was Stan Smith) a while back where he was talking about that he had a hunch that there was another path to creating a world champion tennis player. That a junior could be generally athletic and start playing tennis later like age 13-15 and maybe not complete in junior events, etc.